Taxes paid and Easter/Passover celebrated all in the same week. And based on a completely unscientific Facebook sampling, a lot of people are enjoying Maui, Grand and Bryce Canyons, and figuring out what kind of Beatle, dog, color or Disney Princess they are. People, we have to eat!

Meatless Monday4 Teenage Boys, 2 pounds of pasta, 2 loaves of garlic bread, a big box of salad greens, a pint of tomatoes, and one gigantic batch of Simple Tomato Spaghetti Sauce. They eat. A Lot. But we're always happy to have the boys over.

Nearly Meatless TuesdayKim Chee Pork. Because thin sliced kurobuta was on sale at Marukai. And because the pork is so rich, we don't need to use that much. Very manageable on a weekday.

Shabu Shabu--comfort food that's not heavy

﻿﻿Meatless Wednesday﻿﻿Shabu shabu. We haven't had this in awhile and I've missed it.

﻿Thursday﻿Mauna Lani Leftover Chicken Pasta Salad. My friend C threw this together from a bunch of leftovers we had when we vacationed in Kona. Making this always reminds me of that lovely time on the Big Island. It won't technically be leftover chicken as I'll probably buy a Costco chicken for it.

Aloha FridayPortuguese sausage, eggs and rice. With the yolk of a sunny-side up egg mixed with a dash of shoyu in the rice. This is one of the very simple things I love best.

And so for Lent, I'm giving up eating like I'm traveling, and hopefully traveling too. This is not a sustainable pattern unless I'm planning on gaining a lot of weight or training to be some kind of Olympic athlete in a sport where middle-aged women can excel.

So here's what's cooking this week.

Meatless MondayOn the Fly Orzo Salad. With 70-degree weather and daylight savings kicking in, we may even eat outdoors.

TuesdayChicken apple sausage with red peppers, onions and zukes. I've noticed that Spaniards and Bostonians do not believe chicken sausages. No recipe required.

I thought I would not be cooking much this week when I looked over the fully stocked fridge on Black Friday.

Silly me. The teenagers were in the house all weekend. It's more like Mother Hubbard Monday in the fridge now. A half-bowl of cranberry sauce, a bit of turkey and mostly skin, roasted vegetables, three mouthfuls of stuffing and a bit of CoolWhip and apple pie are all that's left.

Monday and Tuesday should finish off the rest of the leftovers, and off to the grocery store I go tomorrow. Here's what's cooking this week.

Meatless MondayJapanese Curry with leftover vegetables. I used the last shallots and half-onion, plus all the leftover parsnips, carrots and even Brussels sprouts for this curry. With the last of the Okinawan sweet potatoes and kabocha on the side. Curry makes everything taste good.

Chinese "Turkey" Salad

TuesdayChinese Chicken (Turkey) Salad. This is the perfect use for the "kuzu" (i.e., leftover small bits) of turkey are always at the end of turkey leftovers.

As much I as love summer vacation, I believe that the world ultimately works by the academic calendar. Full-time onsite employees with kids typically takes weeks of summer off, and in Europe and parts of Asia, companies definitely slow down in August. And while I almost look forward to the faster M-F cadence that the household shifts to once, school starts, it's always important to keep your inner aloha. With that, we end summer with "eat outside" food.

Teriyaki Chicken--our go-to comfort dinner.

MondayTeriyaki Chicken and Quinoa Salad, using dressing from Spinach Salad, but using honey instead of sugar. This worked really well as a change-up. I was out of Newman's Balsamic Vinaigrette and the Caesar or the Miso-Goma dressing in-house just wouldn't do.

TuesdaySimple summer panini with fresh heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella and choice of pesto or tapenade. No roasted tomatoes needed in the summer! Plus fresh cantaloupe and watermelon.

Kalua pig, we have missed you!

WednesdayCrock Pot Kalua Pig. Everyone seems to like this and here is the most recent no-joke request for it. When I was in New England, someone left a sort-of-frantic-and-quasi-anonymous voice mail asking for the recipe. I had to figure out who it was by their voice and area code. This week, I'm serving it in a very down-home "Hawaii" way with cabbage, a fried egg and rice.

ThursdaySweet and Sour Chicken. This now takes more than an hour since the kids eat so many, so I'm making it while I still have time in the afternoon.

FridayKalua pig taco cups with Li-hing pineapple. Since we missed going home to Hawaii this summer, I'm going back to some Hawaii cookbooks. This sounds like a good way to use those orphaned gyoza sheets one inevitably ends up with.

This is "staycation" week, full of Olympics watching and a lot of plain ole' nothing going on. It's essential for our summer vacation to go beyond relaxed and well into good and bored so that when the school schedule comes bustling in, we are all prepared and looking forward to it.

I've already stocked up on kim chee, sesame oil and a few other staples from the Korean grocery store and made the weekly Safeway run. Just don't expect to find me in the kitchen all day. It still all about manageable cooking and in the case of wonton, conscripting the children.

Korean Mushroom Tofu

Meatless MondayKorean Mushroom Tofu, bean sprouts and purple rice. I finally used the Korean cookbook from the library that was renewed TWICE before I even opened it. The tofu is a winner and the recipe will post later this week.

Fish on FridayBaked Baby Scallops, theoretically the way I had them in Rhode Island, Greek Salad, and fresh corn on the cob.

Homemade Pork Sausage. The all-day food.

Extras for the children and their compadresSpinach veggie dip using a Knorr's pack and lots of cut carrots, peppers and green beansSteve's HummusLoads of yogurt, nuts and berries, aka Squirrel Food.Crackers, bagels, cheese, turkey and salamiPints Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream: Phish Food, Chunky Monkey, Creme Brulee and Fresh Peach seem to be the preferred flavors, and they are on sale too. They're teenagers, they can eat like this!

Pickle Mango. This for me, and it wouldn't be summer without a batch of it. Homemade Pork Sausage, using the other half of the pork butt. Teenagers sometimes like to have a hearty breakfast. At 11:00 am on a Wednesday. Just because they can.

We are all looking forward to a stretch of homecooked meals together instead of the pseudo-foraging and travel of the last few weeks.

Apologies for the absence. The entire household was slammed by a nasty respiratory virus. The kitchen was more like a medicine cabinet. The well-planned sick menu from 2/7 did not happen past last Tuesday.

I'm on the mend, but still not quite genki (元気), already having gone through 2 boxes of tea, 6 lemons, a bottle of honey, at least 4 bottles of Odwalla Strawberry C Monster, grapefruits, tangerines, a package of li-hing mui, and various OTC meds for stuffy, achy, runny, congested and generally feeling-like-you-know-where.

How on earth do you feed your ohana when you're in a sick bed 15 hours a day? Be realistic. Wash your hands. Frozen meals, takeout, and whatever you can manage. And remembering that even 2 sick weeks out of my life is very short, and will pass. So here's how we managed.

With thanks to all who gave me your "Feed a Cold" suggestions, especially the ones for the hot toddies.

Bought. Citrus products. Grapefruits, lemons, tangerines. It's a little too convenient and just plain weird that these are in peak season at the same time as colds.

Boxed salad greens.There were a few days when salad just did not sound good, but this is one of those "You know it's good for you" foods.

Made. Minimal cooking. Maybe 10 minutes of standing up at a time.

Breadmaker bread.I ran out of bread and was in no condition to go to the store. Bread is water, butter, flour, salt, sugar and yeast into the bread machine. Then go take a nap.

Teddy Bear Chicken Soup--Chicken soup has been sometimes dubbed "Grandma's Penicillin." Perhaps not my Japanese grandma, but there is something comforting about a hot bowl of soup when breathing through the nose is an impossibility. Made awhile ago, and frozen for just such days as these.

Miso soup with tofu. This is "My Mom's Pencillin." As a child, I had this whenever I was sick. So much so that for awhile, I didn't like tofu because I associated with being sick. Boil about 8 cups of water. Add about 1/4 cup miso and a few teaspoons of dashi. Cut up a block tofu, dump it in and you're done. Mom said it has everything that's good for you and no fat or oil so it's easy to digest.

Simple Spaghetti. Extra heavy on the garlic and red peppers and boiling water for pasta is good for your sinuses.

Takeout. Takeout is a fabulous option when you are sick, as long as you choose carefully. Light soups or stews or anything that's not too heavy or greasy. A little spicy is good when I'm congested.

Pho. Pronounced "Fuh," this is the generic name for all kinds of Vietnamese noodle dishes. Like miso soup, this is light warm broth. I had it with noodles, won ton, lime, bok choy, bean sprouts and jalapeno. Plus a drizzling of sriracha to help clear out my sinuses. Light, spicy and nutritious.

Tandoori chicken. Husband brought a big pan of this the night before he went down for the count. Spit-roasted spicy chicken with lime, roasted tomatoes and basmati rice. After all that soup, it's good to use your teeth.

Even when you fell icky, you can still Eat Well. Soon enough we will all Be Well. Stay healthy everyone!